Jan 132012
64 things from A to V: Quick – how many different Ikea products are in your home? I asked Paolo – he guessed 50. Not bad, not bad. I left to find out, and was gone for some time. When I thought I’d finished in the kitchen, I remembered to look in the cupboards. Added more. Later I remembered the lighting. And the rugs. Oh dear god, we’re Ikea whores. So much for my original plan – to eradicate it from my life entirely. Nope, I think Ikea’s here to stay. In fact, it’s breeding.
A and B
- ÅFJÄRDEN – bathroom towels, beige – as seen in our renovated bathroom. So far, they’ve stayed fluffy & fold up well.
- ÄPPLARÖ – gateleg table, arm chair & bench. Love them! Fold up in the winter & make a perfect outdoor desk in the summer.
- BEHANDLA wood treatment oil – does the job, but smells bad – as mentioned in my Ikea butcher block review.
- BEKVÄM – Kitchen cart – since hacked to match the cupboards
- BLADET – big vase – we keep toilet paper in it. Writing that makes it sound weird. Is that weird? (Decide: bathroom photos).
- BLANDA BLANK – Ikea calls these serving bowls, but that’s a hell of a lot of pasta salad. Put one atop another & you have a chihuahua-holder.
- BOLLÖ – Folding chairs & table. Ugh. We’re not fat, but these are little chairs indeed. We’re still using them – painted white – as ghetto dining chairs. I don’t recommend coming to dinner at my house.
- BORRIS – door mats for cheapy-cheap. They do the trick in our laundry room - we have 3 or 4. I call them all Boris Johnson.
- BRÄDA – laptop support – ugly but useful, & highly recommended. They have a red & white stripey one now.
E through G
- EGEBY – sisal rug – we put this guy in the kitchen to better protect the laminate floor from splashed water (see at in the last photo in the butcher block post). Really like it, though it’s a bit scratchy at first.
- ENUDDEN – toilet brush, white
- EXPEDIT – bookcase, black-brown – Some strong feelings about Expedit. I hated it in black, decided to tolerate it once painted white – and love it now it has organizers and drawers.
- EXPEDIT drawer insert – 2 drawers, white
- EXPEDIT shelf insert - Shelf insert
- FÄRGRIK – 18-piece dinnerware set is a pretentious way of saying “bowls and plates”
- FLÖRT – Box with lid – FLÖRT is the ugliest thing ever. It’s hidden away, used for immense CD storage. When the CDs go (soon, very soon), so too will FLÖRT.
- FLYT – magazine file – death row for Paolo’s poncey magazines before I throw them away.
- FROST – Drying rack - very excellent & lives in secrecy under the couch.
- GÅSER – Rug, high pile, beige – I walk in circles around this rug. It’s looovely, and extra squooshy for the laminate underlay we put underneath.
- GROLAND – probably didn’t begin life in Sweden expecting to end up as a bathroom vanity.
- GRUNDTAL – pot/utensil rails & hooks – filled up some big, blank walls & make emptying the dishwasher take half the time.
H, I, and K
- HÅLLÖ- patio furniture seat pad, beige – the summer we had these was far preferable to the summer without.
- HEMNES – 6-drawer chest, gray-brown for now – a big, meaty goodie who takes up half my bedroom but I don’t care.
- IKEA 365+ – food saver/compost holder
- IKEA STOCKHOLM BLAD – couch cushion, white, black
- INGO dining table – he’s so little, and yet so useful. Far prefer him with shiny white legs.
- INGOLF – kitchen stool. If we had the space, we’d have two. Any time we have a guest, they get their wine & gravitate here. It’s a nice spot for Office B, as well.
- KARDEMUMMA plant pot – in every shape & size. All but two of our happy houseplants live within them.
- KASSETT – CD box with lid, white
- KASSETT – file box with lid
L through P
- LACK – side table – I hate it but still need it.
- LAGAN butcher block – someone told me it’s discontinued, & I’m really hoping it’s not true. Really like this butcher block.
- LEDING – rack light with 3 spotlights (kitchen) – AND -
- LEDING – track light with 5 spotlights (bedroom) – see both in our apartment’s before/after photos. I don’t love them, but they do the job.
- LEKSVIK – 5x coat hook rack. So useful! Far prefer this to the laundry room’s previous closet rail.
- LINGO – box with lid for paper… and sundry crap
- LOCK – Ceiling light (laundry) – $4 & I’m not looking back.
- PRUTA – food saver, set of 17 – enough of them to freeze our hefty garden harvest.
RRRRR….
- RATIONELL – flatware tray basic unit (pretty good)
- RATIONELL – Lid (not so good! falls off)
- RATIONELL – Recycling bin (good for apartments! Handles!)
- RATIONELL VARIERA drawer liner – transparent – I put it in the dishwasher, and it lived!
- RATIONELL VARIERA box – kitchen bits & bobs holder (good for food processor attachments)
- RETRÄTT – Knife block
S to V
- SKUBB – box, black (clothes storage) – once filled and shoved up high in the closet, they’re too heavy for me to take down.
- SKUBB – shoe boxes – good for things like hiking boots, otherwise too big for generic girl-shoes.
- SKUBB – storage box, set of 6 – likes life in Hemnes very much.
- SKUBB – storage case (winter clothes) – allows me to banish winter in the most satisfying of ways.
- SOCKER – watering can
- STOPP – anti-slip underlay
- SVAJS – clothes cover
- TEKLA – Tea-towel. 50 cents each? We’ll take a hundred.
- VILDBÄR – Spray bottle – one for ironing, one for aphid annihilation.
Et cetera?
(54-63) Products discontinued at Ikea including pillows, bedroom quilt, a side table, knives, forks, storage boxes, a floor cushion, a trivet and a hard-boiled egg slicer.
- Oh, come on. Don’t these things rain from the skies?
So with that sick admission – I’m interested. Are we atypically attached to Ikea? Or are you just as dependent? What’s a healthy level of Ikea ownership? I think, this weekend, I’ll start looking for a life. (Does it come flat-packed?)
Hey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?20 Responses to “Count it: Exactly how much Ikea do you have?”
Comments (20)
A better question is how much IKEA do I have that you have too. Surprisingly only two things.
Looks like we’re safe to go to IKEA together. No knock-down no-hold-bar fights over the last item in the bin. I’m even going for the jam cookies (for the husband and kid) not the cinnamon buns.
I have a few of those IKEA 365+ containers and tea lights of course!
I also have five beds, four of them with trundles, nightstands and a million other things including my latest..http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/90110061/ in silver. Isn’t it so pretty! Never mind I didn’t really have a spot for it. I had my hands on http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/90184028/ last visit but Ryan wouldn’t let me take it home!! *sad face*
Snark clones and yet such different Ikea taste – I didn’t see that coming. I like the bowl but…. it doesn’t seem like it would really hold very much unless you artfully arrange fruit.
Ryan needs to learn the rules of the Big Blue Store of Love. You want it – it goes it the Big Blue Sack of It’s Almost Ours to Love. Then you wait 5 hours in the self-check out line while old people fight about curtain opacity. Then… then (!!!!) you take it home. Re-educate Ryan.
Actually the bowl is pretty wide and shallow….and fingerprinty. Back off kids. But I still love it.
I know, I know! Just wait till we move! There’ll be no recriminating looks allowed as I pile my cart high. He’s usually so good at remembering that the reason I bring him along is to carry the bags and heave the heavy stuff.
One cart per kid & husband!
Damn it, the Internet ate my comment. *shakes fist*
I think the real question should be how much IKEA stuff do we have in common. Surprisingly, only two. I have a few of the IKEA 365+ and also tea lights. Those are a given.
Looks like we are safe to go to IKEA together. No knock-down no-holds-bar fights over the last thing in the bin. I even go for the jam cookies for the kids rather than the cinnamon buns!
I have 5 beds, 4 of them with trundles, some nightstands and shelves, more random items and this little beauty http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/90110061/ in silver. I love that bowl so much, even if I really have no place for it. Last time I was in there, I had http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/90184028/ in my hot little hands, until Ryan took it away and made me leave without it, mumbling something about how we are moving and I don’t get to buy stuff until we do.
Good reason to leave him at home when I go to IKEA.
Oh look, it spit it out. How lovely.
I’m hovering somewhere around 50 (not counting multiples of items), but I know I’m missing some things since half our stuff is in storage right now. I figured the number would get up there when I counted to 12 before I even got up from my desk
I think I have even more. When you posed that question, I looked around myseld and thought, “How about I identify what’s NOT from Ikea?” I will be the first to admit atypical attachment syndrome – it’s the first place I look when I need/decide to buy something.
Not nearly as much as you, that is for sure! I do have a lot of Pax wardrobe components cluttering up my bedroom right now. They really do mean it when they say you need two people to assemble it, especially since I have to assemble it upright due to ceiling height issues. I did manage the small unit, but the big one has defeated me
( Don’t suppose anyone has a hankering for Ikea assemblage, do they?
Don’t all rush at once!
Actually, don’t anyone rush now – it is done and finally…..finally…..after one and half years of being on the floor, on the end of the bed, on the chair etc, my clothes now have a home. Sigh………I guess I no longer have an excuse for leaving them all over the floor now, do I?
Well done!!!!!!!!! Better question…. is it more that you don’t have an excuse to leave things on the floor….. or that there’s no good reason to put them away??
I have no IKEA since I live over 300 miles from the nearest store. It’s not for lack of wanting, though. I have lots of lust for IKEA in my heart. There’s a company here that drives up and buys what you want for whatever IKEA charges plus a 30 or 40% fee, but I’m not quite that desperate.
Are you sure the States is a first-world country?? I’d get that metric double-checked. The Sweden Mobile sounds quite a racket…. remind me to get good & mercenary in the Midwest!
I counted 27, and that’s only big ticket items that I could remember off the top of my head since everything I own is in storage right now. I’m sure once I take a closer look that number will exponentially increase. I second Meg’s attachment. Whenever I decide I need something I might look elsewhere first, but Ikea is always the universal comparison tool.
After spending some minutes in thought as to the actual Ikea genius…. I think it’s because they put the food between the point where you give up, decide you hate the world and don’t really need a bed after all….. and the exit 2 miles away. So you eat, re-group, get mad & get even (leaving some hundreds to fund Sweden’s next run of tattoo-based murder mystery books).
27 sounds normal, far less so with exponents. Welcome to my club.
When I was at IKEA last month buying our entire kitchen (109 boxes arrived), I tried to buy a length of LAGAN. (I was planning to cut it up to build shelves–can’t beat that price!) Our “local” store was out of stock, but they were expecting to get more in a week. I didn’t get a discontinued vibe. Then again, that IKEA was particularly difficult to work with and I swore never to do a big order with them again….
Good idea! LAGAN shelves — might borrow that in future! And such, such good news about its omnipresence in our Lagan-loving universe.
109 boxes! Did you build a fort?
Good idea! We used a bunch as painting drop-cloths, etc., but that’s just a fraction of what we have. We’re such hoarders–they’re all still flattened and stacked in the corner, “just in case.” So a fort is still a possibility!
“Just in case” are fighting words! But I won’t look for you on Hoarders quite yet….
I started this rule that if we are to look for new furniture/lighting/decor etc, we have to look somewhere else before IKEA. Consistently fail at this. All. The Time. I laughed my ass off at this entry b/c once I get around to taking some full house tour pics, the scene from Edward Norton’s apartment in Fight Club ain’t gonna have nothing on how much IKEA stuff is in my abode. It’s like it needs a episode of Intervention.